Little Light
by LittleLightMelody
Summary: My namesake story about a guardian that is brought to life to help end a darkened guardian’s own.
1. Waking Up

My sight slowly came back to see a small, white, floating ball. What an odd thing to see. I could barely hear the floating ball as I started to move. My bones popped loudly and moved rigidly, as if I had been asleep for years. As all my senses kicked into their normal functions, I heard the little ball announce,

"Eyes up, Guardian! I'm a Ghost. A little more specifically, you're Ghost." What? This is odd. I looked down to my chest to see battle-ready armor instead of my lab coat and messy bright blue tie I always wore to the lab.

"Where am I? What's going on?" Those were the only of my seemingly endless questions I spouted to the so-called Ghost.

"You are in the Buried City within Meridian Bay, Mars." The ball droned as it floated around me, as if looking for something. "I've just brought you back from death, Guardian." The Ghost stopped in front of my face. "I am Fira." I stopped. It... Fira said I was dead.

"Wait! So you mean I-"

"Cabal coming up on us quickly. We need to-. No. Guardian signatures are pursuing. I'll ping their Ghosts."

"I was dead!?" I yelled and glared at the floating ball. I was enraged almost to the point of crushing the stupid ball, but I wanted an explanation.

"Yes. I brought you back from death to help combat the darkness. I was quite lucky to find you. Very few guardians are found in Meridian Bay." As she finishes his short 'explanation' three heavily armed people looking to be soldiers walk around the corner, each beckoning to me. I refused to move due to the sheer fact that I barely knew what was going on, but Fira excitedly flew towards them as if she had known them her entire life.

As their respective Ghosts started to regard my own, the three strode toward me, recognizing me with a mere, "Hello," from each of them.

"What happened to the city?" I asked curiously.

"Sand storms buried it. That's probably what you died from." One of them said, the one with the hood covering his head. His armor seemed more built for survival, having a breathing mask and a mesh that looked as though it could take a knife. The larger man had extremely heavy, flashy armor, built more like that of a knight. The third, a smaller woman, had robes that were worn like a trench coat and looked like she was built more for science than warfare. "I'm Estevus. I'm what the Vanguard and other Guardians call a Hunter," the one with the cloak said.

"Hi! I'm Melody! Nice to meet you! I'm a Warlock, like you!" Said the woman, who suddenly seemed younger and much more likable than my first impression. That also explained my armor. She jumped a little with her wave, directed at me excitedly.

"I'm Kalos. We should probably head back to the Tower soon." The gigantic war machine-like man said, obviously ready to leave.

"I-I'm Frost. Wh-what's the T-tower?" I managed to stammer out through my confusion. Estevus just laughed to himself.

"We have a lot to show you, my friend."


	2. New Beginnings

The ride was as awkward as awkward could've possibly gotten. I took a ship back to the "Tower" with Melody, whom was an unsurprisingly excessive talker. Estevus spouted out small talk on occasion, hoping to keep Melody from saying something unusual. Which failed. We won't go into details. Kalos didn't even say a word the entire trip. As we arrived in the tower, we were greeted by a small, red cleaning bot. Estevus and Kalos walked off in the direction of the hangar muttering something about, "checking with the Future War Cult." Leaving Melody and I in our current position.

"So where do we go now?" And almost as soon as I asked the question she had my hand and was dragging me towards a large set of stairs in the middle of the area. "Wh-where are we going, Melody!?" I managed to stammer out as she prepared to drag me down the stairs.

"Well, since Kalos and Estevus don't want to show you around, and I'm a Warlock, we are going to see Ikora Rey!" Melody said with a large smile plastered on her face as if she'd gotten a prize.

"Ikea who?" I asked, my curiously besting for one of many times since I had been reborn, as we'll put it. Fira appeared in front of me, stopping Melody from pulling me down a flight of stairs.

"Ikora Rey is the Warlock vanguard. She watches over incoming and veteran Warlocks that come to the tower." Fira said, her robotic tone ringing through. As soon as she was done though, it was straight down the stairs. She pulled me through a long hallway before we reached a large room with a pit in the middle, filled with a long table, and computers stationed throughout the room. Melody pulled me up to the woman closest to us in the pit in the middle, presenting me almost as if I were a trophy.

"Miss Ikora? My Fireteam and I were patrolling on Mars and found a new guardian. See?" She pulled me forward, yanking my arm, and then letting go and taking a step back.

"Hm. Hello, young Warlock. I'm Ikora Rey, the Warlock Vanguard. You are?" She looked at me sternly and held her hand out to me. I grasped it and shook her hand once before letting go and addressing her.

"My name is Frost, ma'am. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well." She hands me a piece of armor and nods to Melody. "I assume you will be his mentor, Melody?"

"Really!? Yay!" Melody jumped up and down, excitedly applauding herself.

Ikora the turned back to me. "I want you to stop by the weapons vendor, Banshee-44, then to the Shipwrights. Then, Melody will take you to Old Russia to hunt down some Arc fluctuations."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll have him down to Old Russia within the hour! Come on, Frost!" And once again, she had my hand and we were off.


	3. The Land of the Fallen

Ancient dust swirled around Melody and I as we landed in the Steppes of Old Russia. Along the way, Melody had explained the basics of how I could use my ship's inventory space and had even shown me how to activate it through my gauntlet. Melody walked forward slightly and seemed to be looking for something.

"If we were just going to stand at the Steppes landing I don't think Ikora would've sent us, Melody." Dischord, frontier shell and all, appeared next Melody, Fira following suit.

"Oh, come off it, you floating ball of facts. I'm just looking. Come on, Frost! We've got some Fallen freaks to find!" And with that she started off walking in the direction of an old rusted building in the corner of the Steppes. As we got closer to the building I started to notice movement.

"You see that movement behind the rusted vents, too, correct?" Melody made a motion towards the small vents in front of the old building. "That's the Fallen. They are scavengers around the Cosmodrome. They aren't that much of a problem in small numbers, but when you have lots of them..." Melody raised her left arm as a large revolver looking pistol appeared in her hand. As the movement occurred again, she squeezed off three shots and watched three bodies fall to the ground, white wisps escaping from where their heads were.

"That's basically how you get rid of them. There are some more of by the garage-like building. You can take care of them. Go ahead and pull out your weapon. I wanna see what you have."

"Oh, right." I did as she asked and after a quick tap of the wrist display, a small caliber semi-automatic rifle appeared in my right hand. "This is called a scout rifle, correct?" Melody jumped forward excitedly and grabbed my rifle from me.

"Oh, wow! It's been awhile since I've seen a Jigoku SR2! These are so well-rounded any guardian could use it well!" Behind my helmet, I smiled and, shaking my head, I took my rifle from the over-excited girl, readying it in my grip. Walking forward as Melody continued to giggle like a madwoman, I went over the small hill, preparing to fire on whatever target I saw. What I saw surprised me almost as much as itself...


	4. The Lone Wolf’s Right

The body flinched and stumbled backwards holding up their weapon, a hand-cannon with something etched onto its side, to ward me away. As I registered what I was about to shoot, I dropped my weapon from my shoulder and ran over to the now recognized hunter bleeding from multiple wounds across their body.

"Melody, g-get over here!" Was all I could sputter out as I tried to get the dying guardian to put down her weapon and sit up. Melody was up over the hill and on the other side of hunter in less than a second.

"What happened? Where did you come from?" Melody asked her, surprisingly calm given the current situation. She wrapped her hands around the shaking guardian's, who finally relinquished her powerful revolver to me, pushing it with what strength she had. She pointed back behind her to a large building that looked as it had been abandoned for centuries. Quiet chittering came from near the rusting garage and blue eyes poked around the corner, watching what the three of us were doing. Melody slowly stood up, taking the pulse rifle she relied on with her. I started to rise with her but she motioned me back down, making a gesture as if to tell me to stay where I was, with the wounded guardian. Melody began to slink around the building before disappearing under a ridge, surely going after the threat she knew was there. I turned back to the guardian in my arms, unaware that she had managed to get her helmet off, revealing a soft, pale face with deep red eyes and grayish hair to accentuate her looks.

"We need get you back to the tower, I can alert the medics that we are on our way in the ship." I told the unidentified woman, hoping to calm her were she scared. She simply looked at me and tried to smile.

"I'm a dying guardian without a ghost. I'm no use to the tower. It'll be okay. Besides, you ca-" she broke off her sentence with a pained grimace and tried to shift her body before settling back into the crook of my arm. "You can't leave your friend. She doesn't know what's down there, she'll need your help." The guardian lifted the hand-cannon she had earlier given up by its barrel, putting it against my chest. "Take it. Consider it my dying wish for you to go help that girl. She's strong, but she needs more help than you'll ever believe." I put my hand to the gun she had pushed against me and stared back at her.

"You've gotta live, though. We need you! We need everyone!"

"I will live. I'll live through you and that weapon. Just promise... Promise you'll keep it with you." She sighed, her voice getting quieter throughout the sentence. With one last breath, she fluttered out of consciousness and into oblivion. I laid her body down and picked up my rifle and her old revolver. With a flick of the hand and a quick beeping response between Fira and the ship, my rifle was gone, leaving the woman's gun in my right hand. I stood, and turning on my heel, marched towards the building, staring down at the hand-cannon and it's now noticeable inscriptions. On the left side of it's detailed barrel was written, "For the strong and for the meek. The Gray Legacy." As I reached the building's rusted wall, I turned the weapon over to examine the other side, with only one word written on it. A name.

"Ayateru." Frost dropped his hands to his sides, then readied to fire the revolver he now owned. He would help Melody. He would defeat whatever was down there. For their sake. For Ayateru's death to not be in vain. As he turned the corner and pulled off the first shot of the to-be long gunfight, the weapon shined like no other, with a sinister, red glow.


	5. Will of None

The shots resounded throughout the small section of the cosmodrome, each one followed by the hiss of ether being released into the air. That couldn't be Frost, could it? I ran to the corner of the crumbling, brown and green building, peeking around the corner. From my view I could see nothing more than a few dregs scattered around the ground. I ready my trusty auto rifle, worried for what could be inside of this building. Quickly turning the corner, I started to pull the trigger but quickly dropped my weapon, pulling off a shot into the ground by my feet. "Frost? What are you doing? I told you to stay with that hunter." Frost, who had been startled, turned around, looking into the visor of my helmet. His shoulders were low and he was holding the woman's weapon in his hand, a hint of a hellish glow in it's markings.

"She's gone. She... She said you'd need help. Whatever's down there, she's truly scared of it." He looked down at the weapon in his hand, and almost reminiscently, spoke. "It's called the Gray Legacy. At least that's what I think. It also has her name etched onto it. It was Ayateru." He looked up to me and I could feel his eyes locking onto mine, even through the visors blocking off our faces from the world.

"Well... Come along then. She said I'd need help. No point in standing around then." I walked forwards and pushed on his shoulder lightly, urging him to start walking. Frost complied without reluctance, taking strides that slowly got larger as his pride returned to him. We entered the map room, the small corridor dimly lit by the screens showing various areas of the cosmodrome, faded by a ghastly most that filled the area. Any Fallen had already evacuated. "I'm not sure the new guardian knew what he was looking at. I think the ship was leaving." I whispered, even though the helmets denied sound any chance to get out. As we stepped through the hole to the right of the maps, we saw shadowy shapes run down the nearby stairs. Readying our weapons, we walked towards the railing. Peeking back over was a blotted white shape, shadowy and luminescent all the same. It spoke only a few words. Those words were enough to turn us on our heels and leave for the tower as quickly as possible. But instead, behind us were more of the shadowy shapes, filling the hole where we would've made our escape.

"Little lights. Bend your wills to me."


	6. Harmony Broken

The layers of rusted metal and the odd, misplaced fog covered any noise that could have escaped into the crisp night air of the cosmodrome. Within the fog, disfigured members of various races shambled around the rooms, head hanging sideways, looking for the two they were meant to kill. Also within that fog, were two guardians, their light disproportionately small against the Darkness they faced, sitting in the rafters, hiding from the abominations lurking below. The younger of the two was contemplating sacrificing herself while the newer of the two tried to talk her out of it. The woman jumped down out of the rafters before the man could stop her and, without a second, the King summoned more of the Taken abominations. Now was my own time to act. Save the guardians so their light could be used to fight another day. While my fireteam descended on the Taken King's throne, I descended upon his works.

Frost-

Melody had told me to run when she jumped down, but a hail of bullets followed her descent, lulling back to the pained breaths of my friend on the ground. Then, as I started to look over the rafters at Melody, I heard the strangest of sounds. Whispering and footsteps from the stairwell under me. I looked down at Melody's battered body to see a shimmer of electrostatic energy pulling her back towards the stairwell. Quietly falling to the ground, I quickly made my way to the stairwell, unsure of whether the ghastly assailants were still wandering. As I made it into the stairwell and up the stairs, our savior broke his silence with a quiet sizzle of arc energy.

"Take her and meet me at the tower. I'll be near the New Monarchy's main hub." And with another quick sizzle, the man disappeared. I knelt down and lifted Melody by her arms, and Fira transmatted us to my ship, for the journey back to the tower.


End file.
